Community colleges try to control costs

Monday

Dec 2, 2013 at 12:01 AMDec 2, 2013 at 2:21 AM

Across the country, community colleges, which are counted on to retrain the nation’s post-recession work force, are raising tuition and fees. In the Bay State, community colleges are working to keep the increases moderate.

Tim Landis and Danielle McLean

Across the country, community colleges, which are counted on to retrain the nation’s post-recession work force, are raising tuition and fees. In the Bay State, community colleges are working to keep the increases moderate.

According to Jeremy Solomon, spokesman for Massachusetts Bay Community College in Wellesley, the school’s fees increased once over the past five years, in 2011, from $117 per credit to $130, while the state-set $24 tuition cost per credit has remained the same.

"At Mass Bay we understand the importance and value of a higher education option that is affordable and we view that as part of our core mission," said Solomon. "We do everything that we can to maintain those levels for our students."

An annual report by the American Association of Community Colleges showed state funding accounted for 29 percent of public community college budgets for the 2012-13 school year. The figure was 40 percent in 2009, the year the recession ended.

During the same period, the share of costs covered by tuition and fees rose from 17 percent to nearly 28 percent.

At Middlesex Community College and Mass Bay, the state’s share of their budgets is around one-third.

But the local colleges have weathered drastic cuts to their budget over the past decade.

According to an October 2013 report from the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center, the state reduced higher education spending by $366.1 million, 25 percent, between fiscal 2001 and 2013. However in fiscal 2014, the state increased spending by $86.6 million.

Associate Commissioner for External Affairs at the state Department of Higher Education Katy Able said community colleges laid out a plan for legislators on improving the higher education system.

"The increased funding that the Legislature has provided in FY14 allows campuses to do things like hire new faculty or provide more programs that helps train for jobs in the future," said Able.

Congress approved $2 billion for community college job training in 2010. The money, spread over four years, is in addition to regular federal funding. Able said the state recently received a $20 million federal grant for workforce development at community colleges.

Judy Burke, dean of corporate and community education training at Middlesex Community College, said the school has been able to secure grants from the state, which allows local businesses to send their employees to the school for further training in their field.